July’s Top Games on Twitch: Overwatch Enters Esports Ranking

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July’s Most Watched Games on Twitch by Esports and Total Hours saw quite some movement. In the Top 10 Games by Esports Hours, CS:GO gained two positions to take #1. Meanwhile, July saw newcomers to the esports ranking: Overwatch at #8 and World of Warcraft at #10. The Top 20 Games by Total Hours had four new entries, with Pokémon GO becoming the first mobile-only game to break into the top 10. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) climbed to second place, behind League of Legends. In fact, CS:GO increased both its total and esports hours watched on Twitch by more than 16 million.

EVOLUTION DRIVES VIEWERSHIP OF FIGHTING GAMES

Overwatch was the highest ranked newcomer in the top games by esports hours. Turner’s newly launched Overwatch Open, ESL’s Atlantic Showdown, and community events contributed to the game’s debut at #8. It’s worth noting that just 5% of all Overwatch hours watched on Twitch were on esports content. This is in stark contrast to CS:GO. The title, which took the #1 spot from Dota 2 in July, gathered 31.8 million esports hours, or 60% of all hours watched. This was the result of two big tournaments: the finals of Tuner’s first CS:GO ELeague season and ESL One Cologne, one of the most important Counter-Strike tournaments of the year. The Dota 2 scene had a quiet month in anticipation of The International 2016, which started in early August.

The Evolution Championship Series, or EVO, was also held last month. The EVO is the biggest and most important competition for fighting games in esports. Street Fighter V was the standout game in terms of viewership at the tournament, almost doubling its esports viewership to 2.5 million hours in July and gaining two spots in the ranking. EVO also gave the Super Smash Bros. games a boost in viewership, helping them to gain a spot in the ranking.

POKÉMON GO ENTERS TOP TEN

The success of Pokémon GO on mobile carried over to Twitch, where the hit game debuted in the Top 20 Games by Total Hours at #10. There has been some controversy around several top streamers using fake GPS software on their PCs to catch more Pokémon, which is against the game’s terms of service and is considered cheating. It remains to be seen if Pokémon GO will maintain its popularity on Twitch if these streamers are banned. Street Fighter V also made its debut at #14 thanks to EVO. World of Tanks and Grand Theft Auto V fell four and five places to #16 and #18, respectively. League of Legends still reigns at the top of the ranking with almost 78 million hours watched in July, while CS:GO took second place from Dota 2. Rust, which also had a great month in our Top Core PC Games Ranking, debuted at #19, just ahead of fellow newcomer H1Z1: King of the Hill.

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